There has been much speculation as to when Asus’ first convertible netbook, the 8.9-inch Eee PC T91, will start to hit retail. At the very beginning it was believed to launch in ‘late May/early June’, this then slipped to “early July” and now it seems that this has slipped to “late July” according to our conversations with Asus UK last week.

Whilst still no specific date is being committed too, we were assured that this “late July” timeline was now concrete and they envisaged no more slips. The reason for the delay was being attributed to nailing down the interface and making sure they were 100 percent happy with it before shipping. As this is their first touchscreen net tablet, they cannot afford the negative reaction on an unfinished product. Our recent hands-on with the device left us impressed with the build quality but the same couldn’t be said of its interface, which did feel like it needed more work.

Asus also confirmed that a multi-touch SKU was on the agenda to launch with Windows 7, however much would depend on how the T91 sells during Q3 2009. It also seems that the 10-inch convertible tablet, the Eee PC T101, has slipped down the priority list although it’s still on the company’s roadmap.